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one trick is that typically verb-like grammatical structures in japanese are written in hiragana.
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Mark HosangJul 4 '11 at 0:55

@Mark Hmm... really? 死ぬ、出る、現れる、倒れる... Bigger words are more often hiragana especially these days, but that doesn't seem to be limited to verbs or verb-like structures.
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Rei MiyasakaJul 4 '11 at 1:37

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Yes, I think that usage dictates that normal verbs are in kanji, while auxiliaries have to be in hiragana. So, "違う映画みたい" and "違う映画を観たい". Same goes for "〜てくる"、"〜ていく", "〜ておく"…
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AxioplaseJul 4 '11 at 2:27

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@h4xnoodle みたい as in みたいだ is not a noun. If anything it's a な-adjective.
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ジョンApr 14 '12 at 11:41